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BUFFALO SUMMER
'Buffalo Summer'
(Retrobution Records)

Johnny Main

Buffalo Summer are a quartet who hail from South Wales, where they formed just a couple of years ago. Since then, the band have had been steadily growing their reputation and their fan base sharing the stage with such established acts as Skid Row, Duff McKagan and Ugly Kid Joe, and now they have released this, their debut album.

What the album is, is ten tracks of solid rock music which is very much placed in the classic rock category with the band taking their influences from bands like Led Zeppelin and Free, but there's also a pronounced groove to the bands music which gives you the feeling that the band also worship at the altar of those Southern hard rock legends, Lynyrd Skynyrd too.

On a first listen to me, the album just seemed to fly by despite a running time of nearly forty minutes and after giving the disc several more spins, I discovered that they key to this album is that all the tracks are so damn listenable that you very quickly lose yourself in the music.

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Take 'Truth From Fable' for example; the track has some great guitar courtesy of Jonny Williams in between some great vocal lines from Andrew Hunt whilst drummer Gareth Hunt bashes out a good steady beat. This mid-paced track flows along really well, and before you know it, you're singing along to the catchy chorus and enjoying more of Williams sterling guitar work during the solo.

Likewise the equally strong 'Down To The River' which starts off with a lovely acoustic part before the main track really kicks in. Andrew Hunt's voice is particularly strong and bluesy here, and I think that the band could utilize the last vocal section of the song to good effect in a live gig as a bit of audience interaction.

'Ain't No Other' is a rockier number which has a great (if short) build up. There's a another great guitar riff which just carries you through the track and the guitar solo towards the end of the track is just another example of what an asset to the band Williams is. Drummer Gareth Hunt gets another look-in here too with some interesting drum fills to make what could be an otherwise straight-forward rock track just a bit more interesting.

'March Of The Buffalo' is one of the slower tracks on the album, but is still has a great heavy riff taking you through the song whilst has Gareth Hunt again pounds away relentlessly on the drums at the back and with another catchy chorus done and dusted, the track gives way to the original riff again before the guitar solo really kicks in.

With an upcoming six date tour supporting German psychedelic hard rock trio Kadavar in October, you can bet that this is one gig that I certainly won't be missing and advise you to get down to see the band too, because if their live show is anything like this album, you're in for a treat!

Tracklist:
She's All Natural
Down To The River
Truth From Fable
A Horse Called Freedom
Rolls On Through
Ain't No Other
March Of The Buffalo
Keep On Runnin'
Typhoid Mary
Ol' Duke